Seattle-based reporter William Yardley traveled to Mount Vernon, Wa.. to criticize the town's mayor Bud Norris for daring to honor conservative talk show host Glenn Beck with the key to the city: "Proposed Honor Stirs Up a Firebrand'sHometown." The story is accompanied by a large photo of two protest signs mocking Beck and Norris, along with a grand total of one protester. Slow news day?

Yardley's reporting from the region takes predictably liberal angles on issues like terrorism and Sarah Palin, and his Beck piece is no exception.

When he is not calling the president a racist or finding some other way to infuriate plenty of Americans, Glenn Beck, the provocative and popular conservative broadcaster, occasionally drifts into reverie.

"I know it's easy to romanticize the past, especially if you grew up in a small town like I did," Mr. Beck told listeners of his radio program one day in March 2007. "But it seems to me that my hometown of Mount Vernon was full of leaders."....Yet the question many residents here are asking is whether giving Mr. Beck the key - a decision made unilaterally by Mount Vernon's mayor, Bud Norris - is the right thing to do.....Last month, several prominent advertisers withdrew commercials from Mr. Beck's television program on the Fox News Channel after he called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

Can you imagine the Times treating vitriolic left-wing MSNBC host Keith Olbermann in similar fashion?

The Times is not fond of Beck, as a front-page profile from March shows, especially when compared to the glowing notices the Times has given Olbermann and fellow MSNBC left-wing host Rachel Maddow.

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